While the nominal kings were losing their powers through inaction, activity was developing a race of strong rulers in the Mayors of the Palace--originally the royal stewards. Pépin d’Héristal (who died in 714) is accounted the founder of the family which was to oust the Sluggard Kings from the throne that they disgraced. Pépin’s son, Charles Martel--the Hammer--(715-741) stayed the advance of the Saracens in the fiercely fought battle at Tours where he earned not only his nickname but the gratitude of the Christian world, threatened by the Mohammedan invasion. Charles’s son, Pépin le Bref (752-768), thought that the time had come when the achievements of the Mayors of the Palace should receive recognition--when the king in fact should be the king in name. He appealed to Pope Zachary to sanction his taking the title. The pope was glad of the support of the Franks, and approved. Childéric III became the last of the Merovingian line when he was shorn of the long locks which symbolized his regal strength, and Pépin, anointed king in his stead, became the first of those monarchs who have been called Carolingians or Carlovingians from the name of his son, Charlemagne (Carolus Magnus, Charles the Great.) Pépin was anointed first at Soissons by the Bishop of Mayence who used in the ceremony the flask from which Saint Rémi had anointed Clovis. Later the new king was anointed again, this time at Saint Denis, by Zachary’s successor, Stephen III, who was the first pope to visit Paris. The Frankish nobles paid for the honor to their city by being forced by the Holy Father to swear allegiance to Pépin and his sons. There was much in Paris to interest the pope. The Cité was rich in churches and religious establishments. The cathedral now was a church dedicated to Notre Dame, built by Childebert in gratitude for a recovery from illness. It stood beside the one-time cathedral dedicated to Saint Étienne; smaller churches honored Saint Gervais, Saint Nicholas and Saint Michel. Eloy, the jovial goldsmith saint, was the protector of a convent raised to his name. Saint Landry, a bishop of Paris in the seventh century, had founded a hospital on the very spot where Saint Louis and his mother, Blanche of Castile, were to build the Hôtel Dieu in the thirteenth century, and but the width of the present square from the new Hôtel Dieu, built since the Third Republic came into being. Together with religion and good works justice held sway on the island. In the Roman palace judges interpreted the laws gathered and summarized by Dagobert. In a building near by whose site is covered by the enlarged palace was housed the first organ known in Europe, a gift to Pépin. So mysterious seemed its working that a woman is said to have fallen dead when she heard it.